Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 138 - 2014

138
20140226, Bowery ballroom, New York, NY
Chartjunk
Scattegories
Lariat
No one is (as are I be)
Brain gallop
Rumble at the rainbo
Shibboleth
Cinnamon & lesbians
Out of reaches
Tigers
Vanessa from Queens
The janitor revealed
Houston Hades
J Smoov
Baby C'mon
Surreal teenagers
Father to a sister of thought
Kite in a closet

Five days later at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, the Jicks play another strong set. Even more heavily centered on 'Wig out' (10 out of 18 songs) and to a lesser degree 'Mirror traffic' (only 3 songs), they add a couple of strong songs 'No one is (as I are be) an especially the rare 'Surreal teenagers'. The 3 older Jicks songs are less noteworhty: 'Out of reaches' is held over, but is joined by 'Vanessa from Queens' (also rare, but in this case I don't mind) and the definitely not-rare 'Baby C'mon'. The encore is only two songs, but two great ones: a version of 'Father to a sister of thought' (along with 'From now on' the Pavement sogs the Jicks have the tightest grip on during this tour), and the first new original since 'Wig out': 'Kite in a closet'.

For the first half of the set they almost equal the Englewood show. A string of short, snappy songs that proves irresistible. It doesn't have that urge (or the wild guitar) of Englewood, but it's so good natured, there's such happiness in it. And hey, as far as I can hear, this 'Out of reaches' never stumbles – something of a first.

After 'Out of reaches' they slip into the mire for a couple of songs, lose that spark, but they hit back at the end with a beautiful 'J Smoov' (sounds like all the marrow's been sucked out and it's just the skin hanging in the wind – in a good way), a freewheeling 'Surreal teenagers' (Stephen has to dig deep to remember the lyrics, some of the cues get crazily extended). 'Father to a sister of thought' works great – it's dawning on me that the Pavement songs Stephen chooses to play with the Jicks are not the same as the ones he chose to play with Pavement.

'Kite in a closet'

– firstly, are we sure it's an original? They don't announce it as such, but I assume it is. What does the first new original in the run up to the next album tell us?

- when the first new song appears 16 months after the recording of the last album, they're either working hard behind the scenes or don't hold your breath, this might take a while.

- The song is a VU-style strummed groove ('What goes on' crossed with' Foggy notion'). It could go on forever and I wouldn't mind. It's all in the main riff. No chorus in sight, a little bridge leads the verse into a snappy turnaround riff.

More groove, still very poppy, still fun, even more accessible, ever more like those late '70s pop/rock nuggets they cover all the time. If that's the signpost for the next album, I'm hopeful.